Microsoft has released the first beta release of Internet Explorer 8 just a few moments ago. “Download Internet Explorer 8 Beta 1 and put the web at your service for you and your customers. This beta is aimed at web developers and designers to help them take advantage of new features in Internet Explorer 8 that will enhance their websites. Download the beta version of Internet Explorer 8. Internet Explorer 8 is currently available in English and will soon be available in German and Simplified Chinese. Please continue to monitor this page for updates and availability of other languages.”
I know it is not a definitive measure of standards compliance, and there is even no way to tell if something is hard coded for these tests, but, does anyone have the Acid 3 numbers and perhaps a screenshot of IE8/Acid3?
All browsers currently fail Acid3, but I was hoping to compare to the other browsers in exactly how bad each fails. FF 2.0.0.12/Linux is 51/100 in Acid3.
Please also post the detailed result (click or shift click the A in Acid after the test is done).
Here is FF2.0.0.12/Linux
The “elapsed time” might be a bit off since the page was slashdotted and loading very slowly: http://cl1p.net/ff2acid3results/
Edited 2008-03-05 22:47 UTC
Ok looks bad….
17/100 crap everywhere…
Failed 83 of 100 tests.
Test 0: ‘document.defaultView’ is null or not an object
Test 1: Object doesn’t support this property or method
Test 2: Object doesn’t support this property or method
Test 3: Object doesn’t support this property or method
Test 4: Object doesn’t support this property or method
Test 5: Object doesn’t support this property or method
Test 6: Object doesn’t support this property or method
Test 7: Object doesn’t support this property or method
Test 8: Object doesn’t support this property or method
Test 9: Object doesn’t support this property or method
Test 10: Object doesn’t support this property or method
Test 11: Object doesn’t support this property or method
Test 12: Object doesn’t support this property or method
Test 13: Object doesn’t support this property or method
Test 15: privilege escalation security bug: text file ran script
Test 16: Unexpected call to method or property access.
Test 17: hasAttribute failure for ‘method’ on form
Test 18: expected: 10, got: 8 – DOCTYPE nodeType wrong
Test 19: expected: 11, got: undefined – document DOCUMENT_FRAGMENT_NODE constant missing or wrong
Test 20: null in getElementById() probably terminated string
Test 21: Object doesn’t support this property or method
Test 22: no exception for createElement(‘<div>’)
Test 23: expected: 5, got: undefined – wrong exception for createElementNS(‘null’, ‘<div>’)
Test 24: expected: update() /* this attribute’s value is tested in one of the tests */ , got: – onload value wrong
Test 25: exceptions don’t have all the constants
Test 26: Object doesn’t support this property or method
Test 27: ‘kungFuDeathGrip.0’ is null or not an object
Test 29: Unexpected call to method or property access.
Test 30: Object doesn’t support this property or method
Test 31: Object doesn’t support this property or method
Test 32: Object doesn’t support this property or method
Test 33: Unexpected call to method or property access.
Test 34: Unexpected call to method or property access.
Test 35: Unexpected call to method or property access.
Test 36: Unexpected call to method or property access.
Test 37: Unexpected call to method or property access.
Test 38: Unexpected call to method or property access.
Test 39: Unexpected call to method or property access.
Test 40: Unexpected call to method or property access.
Test 41: Unexpected call to method or property access.
Test 42: Unexpected call to method or property access.
Test 43: Unexpected call to method or property access.
Test 44: Unexpected call to method or property access.
Test 45: expected: right, got: undefined – body doesn’t have floatation
Test 46: Unexpected call to method or property access.
Test 47: Unexpected call to method or property access.
Test 49: Unexpected call to method or property access.
Test 50: Unexpected call to method or property access.
Test 51: Unexpected call to method or property access.
Test 52: form.elements === form
Test 53: expected: first, got: – name attribute wrong
Test 54: expected: HIDDEN, got: hidden – input control’s type content attribute was wrong
Test 55: Invalid argument.
Test 57: Type mismatch.
Test 58: defaultSelected didn’t take
Test 59: expected: submit, got: – <button> doesn’t have type=submit back
Test 60: attribute not specified after removal
Test 64: expected: 1, got: 0 – object is missing its only child
Test 67: when calling removeNamedItemNS in a non existent attribute: wrong exception raised
Test 69: timeout — could be a networking issue
Test 69 took 500 attempts.
Test 70: UTF-8 encoded XML document with invalid character did not have a well-formedness error
Test 71: expected: HTML, got: undefined – name wrong (first test)
Test 72: ‘styleSheets.0.ownerNode.firstChild’ is null or not an object
Test 73: Object doesn’t support this action
Test 74: getSVGDocument missing on <iframe> element.
Test 75: Object doesn’t support this property or method
Test 76: Failed to find <rect> element in svg document.
Test 77: Object doesn’t support this property or method
Test 78: Object doesn’t support this property or method
Test 79: ‘null’ is null or not an object
Test 80: Script in XHTML didn’t execute
Test 81: expected: 1, got: 2 – [,] doesn’t have length 1
Test 83: expected: 6, got: undefined – array.unshift() returned the wrong value
Test 84: expected: 0.0001, got: 0.0000 – toFixed(4) wrong for 0.00006
Test 85: expected: cat, got: sca – substr() wrong with negative numbers
Test 86: Argument not optional
Test 89: orphaned bracket not considered parse error in regular expression literal
Test 90: /(\3)(\1)(a)/ failed to match ‘cat’
Test 93: expected: 1, got: 2 – semantics of FunctionExpression: function Identifier … not followed
Test 94: expected: pass, got: failing – outer scope poisoned by exception catch{} block
Test 97: expected: one, got: fail – data: failed as escaped
Test 98: Object doesn’t support this property or method
Test 99: expected: http://www.example.com, got: http://hixie.ch/ – sanity did not prevail
Elapsed time: 9.81s
Edit… Just ran it in Emulate mode and the number is now 14/100, looks worse and I can’t click on the “A” as it is covered up.
Edited 2008-03-06 00:01 UTC
safari does 39/100
ACID 2 test works
Based on my reading of the errors… the DOM used in IE8 has not changed substantially from IE7… bummer for all the JavaScript driven sights.
FF3beta3 just made 59/100 here.
Opera 9.5 BETA scored 60/100
Just starting to download now… will post ACID test results soon.
However it was interesting that the microsoft sight wanted me to download Silverlight to use their new download pages. Skip that thanks.
Just when I thought it would be easy… now the installer is downloading other “patches” something to do with the Language Bar crashing…
I love the update cycle in Windows… BTW I have XP SP2.
Edit… just noticed on the Microsoft Download page the list of “Recommended Downloads” includes IE6 but not IE7…. hmmm
Edited 2008-03-05 23:28 UTC
does it support xhtml 1.1 strict? that way i can finally serve properly formatted xml, and embed svg. which means i can draw lines (finally! after 20 years i can draw lines in my webpage)
IE8 does, of course, not support SVG. And actually I don’t think that SVG support will arrive in the foreseeable future. SVG in combination with JavaScript and other AJAX stuff can — at least to a certain degree — replace Flash and Silverlight. MS has no interest in supporting anything that’s a threat to Silverlight.
ie8 does, of course support SVG
. but it’s (microsoft style) not supporting xhtml as it should. for some reason they did not make a mac version so i have trouble testing it. this can make my live a lot easier if i have to make graphs and stuff.
but it should be possible to embed svg in a cross browser and standard way (but i’m scared it “just does not work”).
for some info about namespaces in xhtml/html/xml hybrid bastard pages :
http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/Release/ProjectReleases.aspx?Project…
Now give me a break.
Yet, SVG is – besides of advanced CSS etc. – one such good open web standard that MS is now supposedly more willing to support in its browsers? Or not? Just cheap empty marketing talk?
The lack of SVG support is one, maybe small, but very good example of the reasons why I don’t usually like or use Microsoft software practically at all anymore. Their main business goal does not seem to be serving people or following fair play rules like open standards, but instead, only making as much money as possible and hindering competitors.
The whole OOXML vs. ODF file format debate is another example of the same, already all too well-known MS business behavior.
But maybe, just maybe, there are now some signs of MS finally learning its lessons and becoming more of a cooperative team player instead of a greedy monopolist only? At least they talk about the importance of open standards more nowadays. Let’s hope that it is not just cheap talk aimed at fooling people.
However, I’m afraid it will take some time and effort from Microsoft before people will learn to trust its willingness to support and follow open standards. And if Microsoft won’t learn the importance of open standards, they will just continue making enemies and losing customers, maybe slowly but gradually anyway.
Edited 2008-03-06 00:10 UTC
XHTML 1.1 Strict? There’s only the XHTML 1.1, and no, IE8 doesn’t support the application/xhtml+xml mime type.
Internet Explorer is free for download and it can be freely ran on any system capable of running WINE, so cut the crap.
Not with “my” IE8. I am not able to scroll the page neither with arrow keys nor mouse wheel. It should be allowed to do that.
You have IE7 running in WINE successfully? Do post instructions on how you managed that, since the IEs4Linux crew have never really gotten past IE6 (they’ve managed to create an IE6 hybrid that uses some of IE7’s rendering engine, but that’s it).
http://www.tatanka.com.br/ies4linux/page/Beta
Better support for open standards is always good, no matter who’s the software vendor. So props to MS even though I use Windows only very seldom. Thanks for releasing IE8 (beta).
It’s not necessarily good. MS has a habit of implementing standards *badly*. I’d rather they implement standard 1.0 well than claim to support standard 2.0. I spend far too much of my time ripping my hair out when IE 7 screws up the layout of combinations of CSS selectors they claim to support.
“Supporting” a standard poorly degrades the standard across the board. And it degrades the quality of mark-up as developers hack around IE’s broken implementations in order to obtain the original intended effect.
And how much did you pay for IE7? Hmmm? Nothing. Because IE7 is free. You get it free with your computer! Many programmers worked hard for a long time so that you could have the fruits of their labors for free. So you really don’t have much room to complain if it doesn’t render your CSS the way you wanted it to. If it doesn’t… send them a bug report and help them fix the problem. I’d call you an ungrateful, parasitic, freeloader. But that might be construed as a personal attack, so I will refrain!
But you should always remember to be thankful for things that people work so hard to give you for free.
I rest my case.
The Microsoft Internet Explorer is not free! Not even as in ^A<>. To be able to use MSIE natively (v7 and up), you must own a version of Microsoft Windows XP SP2 or later. If it really had been gratis (let alone free), it would have worked on all Windows -versions and Linux too! Or they would make wrappers that enabled it to run in other OSes. Such applications exist (http://www.tatanka.com.br/ies4linux/page/Main_Page), but it’s not made by Microsoft. You see, you do not ^A<> as you seem to think, but ^A<> with the OS!
Sinking to the level of personal attacks wrapped in the excuse that ^A<>, is not commonly known as polite…. I’ll leave it at that.
It’s not considered to be ungrateful to expect features that are announced actually work, now is it? After all it’s something you paid for when you bought the OS.
Nobody at Microsoft has worked an unpaid hour to give you anything at all! And you are paying (or have paid) for MSIE.
Edited for minor error.
Nalle Berg
./nalle.
Edited 2008-03-06 07:18 UTC
Ok not sure where that came from but…
I don’t pay for Firefox, Flock, Safari or Opera and they render “my” CSS more accurately (in relation to the standard) than IE which was paid for by me when I purchased the computer.
If the really free web browsers can get it RIGHT then why not the one that is paid for with Windows or with the Computer.
It’s not like the programmers worked for free though.
I can only presume ‘sbergman’ is being sarcastic. Otherwise it’s easily got the record for the most ill-informed post ever on OS news.
When I composed it, I thought it was so far over the top that it didn’t need a winky. Well, at least the people who took it seriously criticized it. I’m not sure what I would have done if it had received accolades from the OSAlert contingent of Microsoft’s extended PR department
Here’s an article about IE8 …
http://www.betanews.com/article/Internet_Explorer_8_Beta_1_goes_liv…
With the new ‘Activities’ feature, looks like they have found yet another way to hijack the right mouse button menu. As if Flash wasn’t bad enough.
… requires a restart of all IE instances.
No, it does not. Use Tools -> Developer Tools and then go to View menu.
Really… must try that… using the button on the tool bar tells me to restart.
Your right… I wonder why the button in the toolbar requires a restart then… strange.
That said the developer tools included are a good step forward and very helpful. The ability to flip your sight between different IE rendering versions is wonderful and reduces the need to have multiple IE’s installed.
Does anyone know if the switching also changes the Script handling so that detection scripts get the right answer?
Because that button has different functionality than the mode switching in the Developer Tools. See the Ars Technica review: http://arstechnica.com/reviews/apps/ie8-beta-1-first-look.ars/2
“Pressing the button prompts you to close the browser in its entirety; on resumption, every site you visit will stick in IE7 mode even if they fit the criteria for standards mode. For finer-grained control, you can change the render mode of a page between quirks, IE7, and standards by using IE8’s new Developer Tools (by pressing shift-F12). This does not require closing the browser, and it does not change the behavior of any other tab.”
I understand the scope difference but if the dev tools can do it for one tab without restarting then why doesn’t the button do it for all tabs without restarting?
http://img205.imageshack.us/my.php?image=funnysb1.png
lol.
Funny, I just tried that website, crashed it once, IE8 restored all of my tabs, crashed again, I get a page with a red X, “Internet Explorer has stoped trying to restore this tab, there is a consistent problem with this page”. I’ll take that as a solid feature.
No, the actual wording is :
“It appears that the website continues to have a problem.”
I just love the fact that when a website is able to fully crash the browser, Microsoft have the balls to suggest that it’s the site at fault.
Unbelievable.
Good feature though!
Its a null pointer bug in the IE 8 rendering engine.
Works in IE7 mode fine, looks like bug in Javascript since it always stops on that.
The last nighty build of webkit scores 89/100.
Just a side remark concerning IE8. From Microsoft about a new IE 8 feature:
“WebSlices
Web sites can expose portions of their page as a WebSlice that users can subscribe to and bring that content with them on their links bar wherever they are on the web. Users receive update notifications when the content changes.”
Well a rip-off of Safari’s Webclip feature on Leopard. Well done folks at Microsoft, you do what Microsoft does best, taking ideas of someone else and make it sound as an new one.
Innovation Ballmer, innovation……
I think it’s safe to say that a bit of copying is done by everyone these days. While you can single anyone out if you really want to, nearly everyone is guilty of it.
Indeed.
Also: Apple is probably some of the worse when it comes to claiming to innovate things they actually copied.
(Make no mistake: they do indeed innovate as well!)
This blog post lists a bunch of different scores.
http://ivan.fomentgroup.org/blog/2008/03/04/acid3-and-konqueror/
i cannot see mail in hotmail… byebye
Did they solve the bug where when using certain CSS, you either could not select text in the page; or you had to remove the doctype , breaking the CSS.
There was a Javascript to fix this, but I wonder if this behavior is still there in IE8.
I didn’t have time to play with IE8 extensively (also, since I haven’t touched IE for so long I don’t really know what websites IE7 won’t work with). The good news is that it passes ACID2 and that it seems that the engine used to render ACID2 is used by default for all pages (unless you click on the “IE7 mode” button).
I really like the WebSlices feature, and even though “activities” left me rather disappointed (they’re simply not as good as, say, the Flock equivalent), they’re still a nice addition to the browser. If IE8 is indeed finally standard-compilant, this might be a good beginning.
It won’t even load the Microsoft updates site.
“To use this site, you must be running Microsoft Internet Explorer 5 or later.”
Great work guys
Does IE8 beta replace IE7 or can I have both on my box without using some hack?
Replaces… so if you follow there guidlines and not use this on a production machine, you will need a spare box to run it on. Or VMWare etc.
I just overwrote IE6 as I rarely if ever use it.
slicers works great, and i really hope that something to that extent becomes standardized… as the way ebay rolled out ie8.ebay.com is just sexy i love the slices for my auctions now.
as for the activities… very impressive most impressive was the translation
also who the hell said that microsoft was hijacking the right click? the activities doesnt touch the right click it uses the same highligted mouseover that office 2008 uses for the selected text bolding which is very nice.
ALSO a very nice feature is the url domain highlighting… my mom almost got scammed by a secure.paypal.x.com site once … had i not been walking by and saw the mistake she wud have been royally screwed now that x.com is highlighted in the address bar its a lot more likely people her would see the error, or atleast its better than nothing.
To set defaults to: Microsoft Live search, Microsoft Encarta, Microsoft Hotmail, Microsoft Live maps, it takes one click on ‘yes’.
To use, for example: google search, google maps [currently not offered], google mail, wikipedia.
Takes 30 clicks, The selection user-interface is such that non-technical people would not feel comfortable changing the defaults.
Seriously. You should make this known:
http://ec.europa.eu/commission_barroso/kroes/index_en.html
There is a “Contact Me” link on that page. No point bothering with any authority in the US. Go right to the officials who listen to, and care about, the people.